1. I love KG's game. I've been watching him since he was in HS. I still have the All American game with him, Pierce, Marbury, Carter, Billups etc on VHS.

2. I didn't make excuses. He didn't have a good year in it's entirety. I've said that on numerous occassions. That said, playing with a groin pull shows heart and leadership. Tyson played like crap in the playoffs because he had the flu. Lin was cleared to play and chose not to so he could prevent further injury (and rightfully so). Whether Melo should have played or not, only he really knows. Fact remains though...he did. And he was our best player.

3. I think most of Melo's criticism is based on what happened during the D'Antoni era. Nobody not named Shawn Marion plays D under Mike D'Antoni. I don't get why Melo gets singled out. I can count on one hand how many games he let his man torch him. LeBron also scored the least amount of points in any playoff series this year with Melo guarding him. Melo also played really good defense in the Olympics...better than Chandler. In fact, Coach K often subsituted Chandler for Melo and the team got better.

4. Correction, he didn't make OUR players better on offense and that's because most of them CAN'T get better on offense. People blame Melo even for Landry Fields decline. Melo didn't make him shoot 25% from 3. He didn't make Landry shoot 56% from the FT line. There's no helping Toney Douglas. There's no Helping Jared Jeffries. There's no helping Mike Bibby. Novak is Novak regardless. Shumpert actually did get better over the course of the year and played pretty well with Melo IMO.

5. I agree. But this goes for every other player on our team as well...especially Amare.

I use "you" in a general sense, not you specifically. I love Garnett's game. I'm a Knick fan but I love Pierce's game too. I wish Melo could graft some of Pierce's game onto his own.

Trouble with playing hurt is nobody knows for sure how limited a player is. I respect that he wanted to get back in there. But then you have to figure out if you can contribute positively. Lin got raked over the coals for the 85% comment. He misspoke. He meant he was 15% away from the bare minimum of being able to compete. That wasn't gonna happen in one week since the last 15% of healing slows down relative to the previous 85%. In other words if he were able to come back at all he wouldn't be 85% he would be closer to 65% which is not going to get it done in the playoffs and besides you risk re-injury.

Your 3rd point I don't agree with and never have. i am a firm believer that your best player, your most expensive player, is supposed to be the best at making others better-- not merely the best at scoring. He needs to be be a positive-sum player, meaning he gives more than he gives up. This means facilitating or at least creating rhythmic flow on offense. And if you can't do that then you must take up the slack on the uphill end of the court.

To my mind, if you say it isn't Melo's fault that other players fell short then you don't believe that synergy is a real thing in a team sport. It also means that you think the reason why Bryant failed so badly in certain seasons is because his teammates were not good enough. There is no excuse for a player who is capable of true leadership to not try to create cohesion during the regular season any way he can. If that means sacrificing his own scoring and raising his assists so that lesser players can gain confidence and focus then that is what he should be doing.

They tried the point-forward thing with Melo and it failed. I honestly thought a basic two-man game between him and stat was the way to go but you rarely saw and sort of pick and roll game with those two. The conclusion is that Melo doesn't have that level of playmaking in him. The effort that he should have made instead and to make up for his inability to make others better is his defensive effort. Doesn't matter who the coach is. If you can't facilitate on offense then you have got to get it done on defense. This simple equation has eluded melo and to some fans is a sign of a certain lack of leadership if not a lack of character. As a ballplayer you hate playing with a dude who puts up shot after shot and yet doesn't give 100% on the defensive end. And you hate it even more when the shots themselves are poor decisions. It destroys chemistry, synergy, esprit de corps.